{chicago dining room}

After moving into our new place at the beginning of August, we were able to get most of our rooms set up to our liking and painted within a couple weeks.  The only room that is 99% done is the dining room which is more of a dining "area" since our living room/kitchen/dining room are basically one large space.  I say 99% complete because is any room ever 100% complete?  I feel like I am always tweaking furniture arrangements or adding small decor elements over time, but since our dining area probably won't drastically change any time soon I thought it would be nice to share some photos of it while we work on fully completing the other areas of our new Chicago place...

 {the only new furniture we purchased for our dining room is this pair of bar stools from Ikea.  The kitchen island we had in the loft would not fit in our current layout so we put it in storage back home until we find ourselves with a bigger kitchen layout in the future.}

{Even though we had to give up our beloved island, our new place has this great built in island with an overhang for bar seating convenient to the dining area} 

{So far we have found it useful for setting up appetizers when entertaining in the same way we used to use the previous island.}

{the swan art that used to be in our bedroom seemed to be the perfect size to live on the large blank wall behind our dining table and of course we bought along our bubble chandelier which Chris expertly hard-wired this time around}

{our favorite table and comfy dining chair set up hasn't changed from our last place except that the Pottery Barn rug which we used to use under this table is now being used in our living room.  I am still trying to decide if this space really would benefit from a rug or not.}

 {dinner party set up with the hot pink napkins I picked up in Mexico on our honeymoon}

{my favorite way to have salt & pepper on the table for guests- something about a little spoon feels a million times more chic than an old school shaker or pepper grinder}

{muji's new favorite lookout spot through the large windows alongside the dining table}